UpdateSingapore December petchem exports rise 5%; NODX down 16%

17 January 2013 08:22[Source: ICIS news]

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SINGAPORE (ICIS)--Singapore’s petrochemicals exports in December rose by 4.7% year on year, while overall non-oil domestic exports (NODX) declined as shipments of pharmaceuticals fell, official data showed on Thursday.

The city-state’s NODX in the last month of 2012 shrank by 16.3% year on year as shipments of electronic and non-electronic products declined, according to International Enterprise (IE) Singapore.

The contraction in the country’s total NODX in December followed a 2.6% year-on-year decrease in November.

Singapore’s electronic NODX fell by 19.1% in December from the same period a year ago, while non-electronic NODX was down by 14.8%, the data showed.

“The decrease in non-electronic NODX was led by structures of ships and boats, pharmaceuticals and specialised machinery,” IE said.

Exports of pharmaceuticals fell by 11.5% year on year in December 2012, it said.

Among petrochemical exports, benzene slumped by 33.6% year on year to 4,852 tonnes, while toluene shipments fell by 11.8% to 19,321 tonnes.

Ethylene glycol exports increased by 7.1% year on year to 91,679 tonnes, while shipments of phenol inched up by 2.2% to 6,124 tonnes.

On a year-on-year basis, NODX to all of Singapore’s top 10 export markets fell in December 2012, with those to the US, Malaysia and South Korea registering the biggest declines, according to official statistics.

Singapore’s December NODX to emerging markets was down by 43.1% year on year, a sharp reversal of the 6.8% increase recorded in November. The biggest contributors to this decline are Latin America, south Asia, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

Total exports in December declined by 13.8% year on year, a steeper fall than November’s 2.8% contraction, while its total imports registered a smaller decline of 1.5% compared with a 4.5% fall in the previous month, IE Singapore said.